Vegan Shepherd’s Pie

I like Shepherd’s Pie. It’s comforting and warm and stick-to-your-ribs good food. Perfect for the winter!

I haven’t tried making a vegan Shepherd’s Pie before but I am pretty happy with these results. The mushrooms and lentils do a good job of giving a ‘meaty’ texture to the dish. The butternut squash chunks give a little bit of extra fun too.

I served this to meat eaters for dinner and they said they enjoyed it quite a lot.

In a measuring cup or small bowl mix hot water, vegan bouillon powder and cornstarch. Mix into the lentil/mushroom mixture and stir until thickened. If the mixture gets too thick, you can add more broth or water.

Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Meanwhile, boil potatoes in a pot with enough water to cover. Once fork-tender, drain and mash.

Add vegan margarine and almond milk and mash until you reach a nice smooth consistency. If necessary, add more milk to get a smooth creamy mixture.

Add salt, to taste.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Transfer lentil mixture to a casserole dish. Top with mashed potato mixture. Place uncovered in heated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until completely heated through and topping gets slightly browned.

I have to say I am quite happy with how this turned out. Because I felt like spoiling ourselves a bit I sprinkled on a bit of truffle salt after plating. It kind of took a homespun classic and made it that much more upscale.

I would definitely give mashed sweet potatoes a go in this recipe. You probably won’t need to actually whip up the potatoes with vegan margarine and non-dairy milk, but simply mashing cooked sweet potatoes should be sufficient. Let us know how it turned out!

a tip I learned from America’s test kitchen is to put dried porcini mushrooms in a grinder to make powder and add that along with a few shakes of soy sauce to make a beef flavor is you don’t have vegan beef boullion